10 MCU Moments More Important Than You Realised

4. The Remaining Avengers Represent The Five Stages Of Grief (Avengers: Endgame)

The Avengers Captain America Steve Rogers Tony Stark Iron Man
Disney

After Natasha Romanoff's sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame, the five remaining OG Avengers gather by the lake outside Avengers HQ, taking a moment to mourn.

They all react to her death in slightly different ways, and though you perhaps didn't notice this at first, each of their responses seem tailored to match the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Thor is clearly in denial, refusing to accept that Natasha is dead, and telling his allies that they can use the Infinity Stones to bring her back. Hulk, fittingly, displays a lot of anger, picking up a bench and tossing it into the distance. Then there's Clint, who represents the bargaining phase by saying "it was supposed to be me" who sacrificed himself, and Steve, whose silent sadness is representative of depression.

Avengers: Endgame Steve Rogers
Disney

Finally, we have Tony, who seems the most calm and collected of the bunch, and whose line "do we know if she had family?" indicates he's accepted Nat's death.

The brilliant thing about this is that each of these reactions don't feel forced - they actually feel in-character, giving this moment an added layer of subtext which shows these god-like heroes reacting to their loss in a very relatable, human way.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.